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Some Facebook users have started posting a message on their walls, and encouraging their friends and family to do the same, claiming that Facebook will start charging this summer.

According to the message, if you post it on your own Facebook wall then you will still be able to use the social network free of charge.

It's official.. signal at 12;20 it even passed on tv. Facebook will start charging this summer. If you copy this on your wall your icon will turn blue and facebook will be free for you. Please pass this message if not your count will be deleted. p.s, this is serious the icon turns blue, So please put this on your wall

There’s no link to any supporting evidence to the claim, and users would be right to treat it with extreme skepticism!

The truth is that Facebook has no plans to charge its users for accessing the site – indeed, it would be a very odd time for them to announce such a controversial move, just as its freely-available Google+ rival is launched.

My guess is that someone has started the chain letter as a piece of mischief – curious as to how many people they could fool into posting the message onto their Facebook pages.

It’s not the first time, of course, that Facebook users have been duped by hoaxes and chain letters. For instance, earlier this year, messages were spreading that because the social network had become too slow the site was considering deleting inactive accounts. Again, totally bogus.

Don’t forget you can join the Sophos Facebook page, where we’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest rogue applications, scams and malware attacks threatening social network users.

Thanks to Naked Security reader Cody who first alerted us to this chain letter. Four of his relatives had fallen for it!

103 comments on “Facebook to start charging this summer? Hoax spreads across social network”

Maybe charging would be a good idea. It would leave the 20 people who find Facebook actually useful being able to concentrate on what they're doing and not have to deal with the relentless crap. The rest of us slot-jockeys will have the hypnotic spell broken and be able to go do real life stuff 🙂

Excuse me? And for people like me, who had a temp job but the temp job ran out of work, so I cant work, but I didnt work long enough to earn unemployment, and I am scrounging for money to eat and pay rent, what if I take facebook seriously and need it but yet don't surround my life around it? I can't even afford rent and food. How am I supposed to afford facebook? No, charging isn't a good idea. There are poor people out in this world, hunny. And we still need ways of communication. Jusy saying.

Ever hear of a phone? or mail? or email? or the many countless other means of communication? Are you seriously saying you NEED facebook? It's funny how you say you can't afford rent and food yet you continue to pay your internet bill so you can get on facebook… wow. Talk about messed up priorities. What do you think people did before facebook? I'm on facebook everyday, and if they started to charge for it…. delete! Wouldn't phase me in the least.

well if you feel that way maybe you should be the only one for facebook since you must have so much money to pay for the service unlike all the middle class folk that have facebook can't afford to pay because we obviously have bills to pay but by the way your talking seems like your life is set and you can afford to pay so good luck with that JAG.

WHO would fall for this crap.. Ohh. the same people that reply to E-Mails from 3rd Countries saying that Uncle Zappie, third cousin to Uncle Goober left you $41,00,000.00… Just send them $125.00 to receive the check.

i can afford to pay internet but i have family in other states and countries i cant afford a long distance phone bill like that so maybe i want to keep in touch in there lives. You make a choice maybe your friends dont feel they wanna do real stuff with you because there on facebook sorry thats your problem dont down everyone else for it.

I agree, funny how some people can’t live without Facebook, how sad people have become addicted to this site. Forgetting the real life, while people “say” it us beneficial look at all the harm it does. The important things in life get neglected, marriages and relationships being destroyed with families through infidelity, people posting to see if their “friends” who are really old acquaintances post on their posts as they yearn for attention. How about get a life with with your real families and true friends and get some self esteem through being productive instead of wasting your life with petty comments. If you called your friends and acquaintances all day and everyday with the stupid and silly comments posted on FB, they would eventually stop taking your calls and tell everyone that you are an attention fanatic and you need to get a life. What is the difference via this site??? Sad this is where technology has taken us, they call this progress, wonder how much more progress we can take, hmmm.

I couldn't help but wonder what was driving the bus loaded with folks who "hate" Facebook? There is no charge for using it, so what is there to hate? Don't like it? Don't use it. Oh well ………. life goes on!

Damn, James…. why so venomous? Maybe you are a close friend or family member of that guy who tried to steal FB from Mark Zuckerberg? If YOU don’t like FB, then YOU don’t have to use it….. but you also don’t have to call those of us who do like it “dumb”. Just walk away. LOL

Well, any intelligent person would realize that if facebook would start charging you would hear from facebook well before some wall post. They would most likely contact everyone via message on their account itself and/or by email.

I don’t think people are stupid for falling for a hoax. I think those people are stupid because they didn’t do a minimal amount of research before posting a ridiculous rumor to all of their friends, thus perpetuating the problem.

Tina while it is "plausible" the post "claimed" it was even reported ON TV. hmmm. Its like the BS about Tide detergent samples in the mail containing anthrax. The post CLAAAAAIMED it was on CNN. Well folks, when you see something like that, check your local news sites, check the national news sites… if its TRUE, I guarantee it will be a posted news story on their site. If its a HOAX then guess what? When you do a search for it on a plausible site, IT WONT BE THERE! SIMPLE.

the post claims it was "PASSED ON TV" which I guess in NORMAL English that means it was announced on a news station, which means DO YOUR RESEARCH. its not that hard. If none of the news stations are reporting it, I can imagine that its NOT true.

what's with your lame all caps, Lea? the point is made with the words, not the caps. just saying. It doesnt take looking on a news station. google the damn thing 'facebook making us pay 2011', hoax pops up everywhere.

they people out there how beleive in rubbish we going to pay for face book its all crap if they wanted to charge us it would warn us now to be member not summer so this company making money throw other companys to keep this going ?,,

I never believed it ever since i read it, its foolish for people to go posting such a hoax. I’m not reposting it because is stupid to even think they would go and charge ppl to get on Facebook. The people who keep saying this should be charged.

Angela some info could be used to steal an identity like birthday, address and such, but mostly FB is harmless, it is actually a good thing for social development, the only real problem is, that some people takes cyberbullying too seriously and then it can be dangerous, if too sensitive people public their activities. I have my FB account public and I do not care if someone on the street would scream, he loves Bambi, I would scream back, yes I do. 😛

People need to remember that if a user agreement gets changed in that way it has to be announced by the company, in this case facebook.
they would need to inform every user individually and give them enough time (if i recall correctly it's at least 3month) before the changes actually take place, to allow the users to either agree with the new UA or to delete their account.

According to one source which I consider very reliable, if you copy and post any of those messages, you are downloading and passing on a trojan. So beware. I know it got mine because I clicked on it to read all of it. I did not post it however. It took almost a week to get rid of the trojan. You can forget about it if you are using Microsoft's security software. It will not pick it up.

Angela, I for one, reveal as little personal info as possible. Think of all that you reveal on FB with hometown, dob, high school, etc. then think of your password reminders and a lot of these are the same questions. There is a lot to be said for FB privacy issues, spoken by no other than Mark Zuckerberg himself. Watch The Facebook Obsession on MSNBC and the humor with which he says something along the lines of, "you'd be surprised at how much information people trust you with".
I may come across as paranoid, but that's ok.

this is so much not right! we pay for internet service which i think is enough $. evrything today is about money then people wounder why there is so much crime. what happened to the saying do for the people. this is america doesn't seem to free anymore. come on facebook give us a break.

First of all, I can't really understand what you are saying (proper grammar would come in handy). Second, Why does Facebook need to "give us a break"? They are NOT charging… in case you didn't actually read the article.

In other words, you demand a service (Facebook, that is?) for free, and then you complain that everything today is about money? Sounds like you're talking about yourself there. I've noticed that the people who fall for scams like this are people about my age (I'm 60), except that they are also right-wing, often Republicans, often Tea Party types who complain about everything but their own greed.

The kind of freedom that America is about isn't stuff that you get without paying for it, but I think it's very revealing that you seem to think it is. Why are you saying "come on facebook give us a break" when Facebook isn't charging you and isn't going to charge you for membership? You're already getting a break.

That said, I probably wouldn't use Facebook if they started charging for basic service, though I wouldn't complain if they did. But there's no reason to think that they will.

Read up on things first before jumping to thinking all things are 100% true people! Plus if this was true… Think about it , we all lived without F.B and cell phones in the 80's… Will we all die if the power goes out? lol

You might as well put a sign on your back: easy pickings, come rob me!

The easier you make it for thieves to steal your stuff, the more likely you will be found an attractive target by cheap thieves, and as long as there are prospective victims like you in large numbers, frugal thieves will be drawn to plunder you before paying fees to plunder someone more careful than you. Leave your house and car unlocked too. That's actually safer than leaving personal information exposed online, given the number of thieves trolling the net using automated applications to "try every door" and "open every window" they can find. My son who works in data security told me that personal sites get hits by visiting trolls several times an hour and, for some more attractive sites, several times a minute.

what is more ironic… most of the people who are commenting here, are either, guilty of posting it and realizing it didn't work. or, just simply… they wanted to double check before they went and re-posted that stupid link (just like i did… on the latter)

I thought it was 2 funny…..I gt home n my mom made me copy n post it 2 her’s….I was about 2 do da same until I actually read da damn thing n I jus laughed….turn wat blue….the whole site is damn near blue

VERIFIED—On December 25th, 2013 Facebook will start charging you for your account… To avoid this, you must get naked, stand on your dining room table , do the Macarena, all while singing ''I Will Survive''….. Then and only then will Mark Zuckerberg come down your chimney to tell you that your account will stay free….. Paste this to your Walls or you will be transformed into a Goblin……

Wow! Didn’t realize the subject was so abstract. Interesting comments. Thanks from an “old lady” who really doesn’t know squat about these things. However, I was skeptical about “reposting” and did not repost. Ya for the “old lady!!”

The registration form says "It's free and it always will be". Facebook is already a multi-billion dollar company. It will not suddenly say it will charge $20 a month and take a chance of losing 400 million users and then become a multi-million dollar company. It's simple business. Come on!

Now that's not nice to call people stupid or fools…I reposted it. Thought perhaps it wasn't true, mostly because of the punctuation, but I did it anyway. I didn't hurt anyone, and just wanted to make sure that if it was true I was covered. I mean honestly, who cares? Just glad there wasn't a virus attached to it. 🙂

The red flag to me was the spelling on account to read "count"?? But I do not think the people that thought it was possible and did repost were stupid. What did they hurt? Don't throw stones when you live in a glass house.

On December 25th, 2013 Facebook will start charging you for your account. To avoid this, you must get naked, stand on your dining room table, do the Macarena, all while singing "I Will Survive". Then and only then will Mark Zuckerberg come down your chimney to tell you that your account will stay free. Post this to your wall or you will be transformed into a banana. Pass the word along ya'll 🙂

Anyone notice the inherent logic flaw in the message? If you post the message, Facebook will be free for you; if you don't, you will be deleted ….. if that were true, there would be NO ONE LEFT FOR FACEBOOK TO CHARGE.

Even if they do charge a small amt evenually, who cares!! Ya either stay or delete. Pretty easy I would say. If you have read anything on this subject " They are thinking about doing this ", but haven't as yet. Thinking is still free. I THINK !!!!!

all i can say is LOL! people have been spreading these sorts of lies about free services FOREVER. first it was IRC, but that failed, because all the nerds on there knew it to be false, then it was aol messenger, and yahoo, and msn, and all the others… this simple little lie has been around since the birth of chat, and will likely be still around long after chat has evolved to something far beyond our imaginations.

Facebook could never charge for their site.If they did then they would lose almost everyone and they would be forced to close.I know I would never pay for Facebook.Its cool but not something I can't live without.

If fb do start charging then they will have to change the motto (it's free and always will be) and there might not be so many people going on there because then you will have to go through all the hassle of refunding your account every month, half a year or year and not so many people will want to pay just to speak to other friends online and poke people (e.c.t) and hasn't the person who runs fb got enough money already??

Just Thought I would let you know….ANOTHER CHANGE IS COMING…On September 31st, 2011 Facebook will start charging you for your account. To avoid this, you MUST get NAKED, stand on your dining room table and do the Macarena, all the while singing ”I Will Survive”. After filming and posting it to your Facebook wall and YouTube, then, and only then, will Mark Zuckerberg come down your chimney to tell you that your account will stay free. Pass it on. 🙂

CHARGING? wait what Facebook does human can't live with? i tell you this-NOTHING! facebook only have games to spent time with and update from other people were you can see whats going on 24/7 facebook is just essential to your time if you get bored nothing else to do then you might wanna check your facebook to know whats going on to get connected to that person thats all nothing less…

seriously im not fan of facebook but people are just messing around with facebook cause they just probably an another social network that slowly getting bankrupt cause facebook is taking over as the world number 1 socializing.

and if facebook going to CHARGE us then WHO CARES! i rather spend it to my Dog food for all i care..

I like facebook the way it is. I don't think there needs to be a charge because there's already enough stuff people are charging for. Facebook is a good way to hook up with old friends and stay intouch without paying a boat load of money,,,such as cell phones and home phones rates. We need it to atay the way it is. They do charge enough for the applications anyway. So the way I see it. It's all good. I just wish they wouldn't keep changing the format so much. That part is annoying.

other go but other come… like friendster and facebook, right? let's wait and see what gonna happen next year if it's really true but hoping it will gonna happen that facebook will charge in using their site…